For close to 20 years, Amerimulch® has been building equipment for producers of mulch and other landscape products. Amerimulch manufactures equipment that colors mulch as it’s produced and the colorant that’s used in these machines.

Amerimulch is a business unit of ChromaScape®, which is a leader in coloring technology for many industries, with products ranging from printing inks to colorants for rubber and foam insulation to concrete. These products are offered through its other business units: Solution Dispersions®, Innotech® and ChromaPave®.

The unit’s main market is the landscape wood mulch industry, and it also does some coating of aggregate used in the landscape market. But this is only a minor percentage of business.

Amerimulch’s latest equipment introduction is the Marksman® line, which includes Gold and Platinum models, built on two decades of equipment evolution for a market that has also grown and evolved.

The Marksman addresses several issues that Amerimulch saw its producers were struggling with, the primary one being the ability to accurately gauge and apply colorant to the mulch to prevent colorant waste and control costs.

Used in conjunction with Amerimulch’s ColorTrom® 300, the Marksman applies the proper amounts of colorant and water, “based on what it’s seeing on the belt with pinpoint accuracy,” said Scott Thompson, general manager for Amerimulch.

Basically, the Marksman does all the necessary calculations for the operator and also adjusts to fluctuating production rates based on data from automated sensors on the machine.

Previously, the operator had to manually calculate how much colorant and water to apply based on the machine’s running rate, and then adjust on the fly if production rates should change.

“For a mid to large-sized company that does 100,000 yards a year, if they over apply a half a pound per yard or 50,000 pounds, that could equate to $40,000 per year. That’s a lot of loss for them, so the need for accuracy is critical,” Thompson explained.

With the Marksman, all the operator has to do is select the color they want, and then feed the residual wood into the machine, he said.

Besides automating the color application, the Marksman keeps a production count to help companies with inventory control. “It tells you how many yards you’ve produced per day, week or any other time period you choose,” Thompson said.

“It’s a revolutionary piece of equipment,” he said, adding a new level of technology to a line of equipment that, over the years, has already undergone three major evolutions to meet market demands.

The line’s first predecessor was an auger system that later evolved to a twin-shaft mill system, and then to a trommel-style system that’s more energy efficiency with a new safer design that eliminates potentially hazardous spinning shafts and pinch points.

Compared to a production rate of 80 yards an hour on its predecessors, the newer machines can process in excess of 300 yards per hour, Thompson said.

Amerimulch does this by keeping a close watch on the market, its customers, and their needs. “We always say that our sales reps get just as dirty as the people out in the field doing the work. We’re eating a lot of sawdust, but that’s what separates us from everyone else.”

The company is now working on adding even more technology to the Marksman line. “We’re going to be installing safety and training videos right on the equipment’s computer display screen,” he said. That way, when there’s a new operator, they can train right on the equipment before operating it.

The next evolution of the system will be updated with the ability to order colorant and parts right from the machines.